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how to create a new Jira Form template

Akzhan Tynymbay

Hi,

I need help understanding how to create a new Jira Form template that can be manually attached to an existing work item (issue), rather than one that automatically creates a new issue on submission.

Problem:
I want to create forms that I can manually attach to an existing issue via the "Attach form" action, without them triggering creation of a new issue.

When I go to the "Forms" tab in the project's top navigation and create a new form there, it appears to only support the "intake" use case: when someone fills it out, it automatically creates a brand new issue. I could not find any setting (e.g., an "Issue Form" toggle) to disable this auto-create-issue behavior.

Questions:
1. Where can I create a new form template that is meant only to be attached to existing issues (and not tied to automatic issue creation)?

Thanks for your help!

Accepted answers

All comments

Trudy P Claspill

Hello @Akzhan Tynymbay

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

What type of Space does this concern? Click the ellipsis button next to the Space name in the navigation panel on the left. What do the last two lines in the pop-up say? It will be something like:

Software space

Company-managed

Forms functionality differs between Software and Service Spaces, so the type of the Space will affect the answer we provide.

Martin Runge

Hi @Akzhan Tynymbay

Welcome to the Atlassian community!

If you are working in a business project, the system natively treats forms as intake and creates a new work item when this form is submitted.

As far as I know, and just tried, only Jira Service Management spaces support attaching a form to an existing work item or request without creating a new request. Each form has a settings panel where you can disable the "Create a shareable link," but all forms can still be selected for attachment.

Akzhan Tynymbay

Software space

Company-managed

Akzhan Tynymbay

But on another board on another team (we use the same Jira), there's this feature. You can attach a form to a task and fill it out. I have admin access to my board, but I can't do this.

Akzhan Tynymbay

But on another board on another team (we use the same Jira), there's this feature. You can attach a form to a task and fill it out. I have admin access to my board, but I can't do this.

Akzhan Tynymbay

Olha Yevdokymova_SaaSJet

Hi @Akzhan Tynymbay

In Jira Software projects, the native Forms experience is usually focused on intake - meaning the form submission creates a new work item. The “Add form” option on an existing work item is generally associated with Jira Service Management forms / legacy ProForma behavior, so it is not be available consistently across all Software projects, even within the same Jira site.

That’s why you can see it in one Software project but not in another because forms are tied to the project where it was created.

Another approach you might consider is Smart Forms for Jira, developed by my team. It works across Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Jira Work Management, Jira Product Discovery, and Confluence, and supports exactly this “attach a form to an existing work item” scenario.

Another helpful point is that Smart Forms are reusable templates, not one-time forms tied only to a single project. You can create a form once and reuse it across different Jira projects and work item types, which is useful when several teams need the same checklist, approval form, QA review, onboarding step, or follow-up process.

With Smart Forms, you can:

create reusable form templates in the app;
manually attach one or multiple forms to an existing Jira work item;
auto-attach forms based on project and work item type;
attach form automatically on any workflow trigger
attach forms already pre-filled with Jira values
collect responses directly inside the existing work item;
optionally map form answers back to Jira fields to update it
transit work item on form submissions
share a form from an existing work item with external users when needed.

So if your goal is not intake/new issue creation, but rather adding a checklist, approval form, QA form, onboarding step, or follow-up form to an already existing task, this setup is supported.

The typical flow would be:

Create the form template in Smart Forms.
Open the existing Jira work item.
Click the Smart Forms app panel/icon.
Select the needed form.
Click Add Form.
Fill it out, save it as draft, or submit it directly from the work item.

This keeps the form connected to the existing issue instead of creating a new one.

Hope this helps clarify the difference between native Jira Software forms and issue-attached forms. Happy to clarify if you’re exploring this setup.

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